The Purest Place in the Galaxy
by radiojamming
Summary: There's ghosts on Dagobah, and they mean nothing but good things for Rey. On the other hand, they seem absolutely bent on making Kylo Ren miserable. (Crossposted on AO3 under ClockworkCourier)
1. Chapter 1

Please join me as I fling myself headfirst into the darkest, slimiest, most monster-infested trash compactor on this spaceship.

No but seriously, this is like a headcanon jam plus everything I ever wanted for these two, including Ren getting shit-talked by ghosts. This is one of those 'Rey is a Kenobi' things and if the series decides otherwise, then it shall be an AU where the same applies. I could get into discourse for days, but again, I am moving to a trash compactor where I will be very comfortable among my species. I will thrive in this new habitat.

Also, writing for Yoda is harder than I thought. Forgive me, you must.

And major major Buddhism/spirituality going on here. I remember reading that the Force is supposed to be based on it to a degree, so I jumped on the headcanon pony and went with it. It was fun.

(And you can totally read S4-M1 as 'Sami'. I do. They're my favorite character and I just made them up.)

Crossposted on AO3! You can also come say hi on my tumblr radiojamming :D

* * *

Dagobah is full of ghosts, Rey comes to understand. They don't intent to harm her, and for that matter, she's yet to see one. Yet, they're always there. She feels their presence most poignantly during her meditation sessions, surfacing to her consciousness in the form of tiny blips of light. They _are_ lifeforms, in a way, but different from the multitude of strange fauna that inhabit the planet. They exist inside the Force, and so they accompany it when it flows into her, when she moves it and captures its flow as she trains. Through this, she understands that there are spirits drawn to this tiny, insignificant portion of the galaxy, and as with everything else on Dagobah, she chooses to coexist with them.

In reality, Rey wasn't initially thrilled about Master Luke's choice of training grounds, especially when he informed her that she would be going alone. It seemed thrilling, at first. But once he described the terrain and the things that inhabited it, returning to a sand planet like Jakku seemed more appealing. He told her about his time there with the Jedi Master Yoda, how there were times when even though he thought he was alone, he never truly was. He said it would be the perfect place to meditate, to hone her already formidable control of the Force, and to learn to let go. When she asked what he meant, he gave her a look she was coming to recognize as painful understanding.

 _Anger_ , he said. _It will destroy you. Anger, rage, hatred. You need to learn to let them all go._

In the creaking, sloshing quiet of Dagobah, Rey begins to see what means. Anger prevents her from emptying her mind completely. Rage kindles a slow burn in her chest that never abates. Hatred creates an image, a symbol of what stops her from letting go, and that image is of Kylo Ren.

The ghosts surround her, and she believes that they understand.

* * *

Her camp is so rudimentary and rugged that her hollow AT-AT on Jakku seems downright luxurious. Her shelter is an ancient gnarltree, dark green with growth and vines. One of the first things she learns about Dagobah is that there is no such thing as proper shelter, as everything is guaranteed to get soaked. If it doesn't rain, the humidity does the job well enough. Sweat clings to every available surface of her skin, and no amount of wiping it off fixes the problem. The gnarltree does little other than just give her some closure of having some kind of roof over her head.

Her sparse belongs are scattered between the tree and the X-wing fighter she borrowed. It's a T-65B, older than her by quite a bit, but General Organa was very gracious, and Poe practically danced around the thing with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. What's more, the Resistance provided her with an astromech, S4-M1, an excitable little droid that so far has done an excellent job of keeping Rey company. Other than the droid and the fighter, there's bedding under the tree, a crate of rations, and a firepit Rey managed to build. It's hardly anything to be proud of, but Rey can't help herself.

Rey's time is split between the camp and a little outcropping of rock overlooking a particularly scenic part of the swamp, where the trees part just enough to provide a view of the sky (if it isn't foggy or cloudy or otherwise dreary) and a pond so still that its surface is like glass. Rey meditates there, in a unique place where the sky, land, and water seem to be of one entity.

Master Luke had told her to seek out a small dwelling on the planet, but Rey hasn't had luck with that. There's still plenty of time. More than enough.

* * *

Dagobah's nights are strange. They come slowly, with darkness crawling like thousands of creatures, stretching out and languishing in every crook and niche, shadows growing and joining up. They plunge the jungles and swamps into a thick, humid darkness, and even the darkness lives as much as the rest of the planet. It is a tangible thing, and if Rey closes her eyes, she can feel it crawl around her, curl contentedly by her side, whisper to her that all is well, that she is protected. Night is not an entity of the Dark side, she knows. There is so much light in it, from the stars that peek through the heavy cover of the clouds, to the tiny luminous fires that erupt and dance over the swamp when the night settles. Different things come out in the dark, and they are so full of life that Rey relishes in their presence, the way they sparkle like a constellation in the Force.

But it's in these nights that the ghosts first come.

The first one she actually hears comes one night, nearly two weeks into her stay, if her chronometer is correct. S4-M1 seems to detect it first, as Rey awakens to their persistent beeps and whirs, chirping at something unseen.

Rey cracks open one eye, rolls over to face the droid as they stand sentinel beside the gnarltree.

"What? What is it?" Rey whispers, her hand already inching toward her lightsaber.

 _Danger?_ S4-M1 says in binary, but sounds unsure. It's a query, like they're asking the darkness itself. Something creaks in the distance, and there's a splash in the nearest pond, but otherwise, there's silence.

Rey feels the ghost before she hears it. Nothing physical, but more like a pulse in the Force, and she latches onto it. It's bright, a luminous little star in the gentle ebb and flow. She knows that something is different about it, as it feels like another person, has a signature similar to Master Luke's, and one that Rey has rarely felt.

A Jedi.

" _Oh._ " Rey hears it, and almost thinks it was a hallucination. S4-M1 seems to disagree, judging by the crescendo of beeps signifying that they're aware of someone else.

"Hello?" Rey calls, glancing around the gloom but only seeing the outline of the gnarltree's roots and the ghostly light of S4-M1's chassis.

No answer for a long stretch, and then, " _Hello. I'm surprised you can hear me._ "

It's a man, his voice deep and lilting, but pleasant. He sounds old, maybe a little gruff, but friendly. His light in the Force brightens, and Rey feels at ease, like she's in the presence of an old friend.

"You're a Jedi," she says matter-of-factly, although there's a distinct thrill that passes through her at the notion. She sits up on her bedroll and pulls her knees to her chest, biting down on her bottom lip as she looks around. "Isn't that right?"

" _It is,_ " the ghost responds, sounding amused. " _And I seem to have the honor of addressing a young Padawan._ "

The excitement coiling in her chest blooms and she can't help the smile that unfurls across her face. It's the first time she's truly felt the Force and the Light side since she began her training with Master Luke, and the first time that anyone has spoken to her not just as Rey, not as a scavenger or a desert rat, but as a Padawan. A Jedi-in-training.

"My name is Rey," she says, still glancing around. S4-M1 gives its callsign as well, but manages to sound a little frustrated and not being able to catch sight of the Jedi ghost.

There is another breath of silence before the ghost speaks again, and there's a brief waver in his presence. " _I am Qui-Gon Jinn,_ " he replies. " _Or, I was. Ages have come and gone since I passed._ "

The name sounds familiar, although Rey can't seem to catch the drifting memory that would supply the reason. Instead, she nods to him, wherever he might be. "Were you a Jedi Master?" she asks, grinning to herself, her toes curling in her boots.

" _I was,_ " he says, the amusement still present. " _I was not known for being completely obedient to the Code, but I like to believe I did well by my Order. Perhaps._ "

Code. Order. The words alone send another rush through her. They make her think of another time and place, of people like Master Luke, in great quantities. Different people from dozens of races, bathed in the glow that was the Light side of the Force. She finds herself yearning for it, even though she knows so little about it. There were others like her, she knows. Others she might have been able to train with, find some camaraderie, a sense of belonging.

She senses the ghost peering at her, although he still doesn't appear. " _I must ask though, Rey,_ " he says, and she's immediately alert. " _Who sent you here?_ "

"My Master," she replies. "His name is Luke Skywalker. He's a very powerful Jedi. A hero."

Although it's faint, she feels some kind of tension emanating from the ghost, a ripple of something that might be pain. But it's gone in a breath, fading back into the tide that binds her and this ghost together. " _I see. I can sense many things in this galaxy, and I have felt in the past, as with now, that there are so few of you. There is a darkness that spreads._ "

She knows what he's talking about. The First Order, the Sith, the Empire. It has so many names, so many heads like some horrible beast that cannot be killed. The Dark side is just what it is, and even on Dagobah, she feels it pushing against the very edges of her awareness, insistent and cruel. It chases the Light, tries to snuff it out at every stray turn. She senses that the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn understands this, as bright as he burns.

"There was a massacre," she explains, her eyes trained overhead. "All of Master Luke's students were killed, he told me. Anyone who had promise."

" _By one of his own,_ " the spirit says, although he did not need to. They both know it.

There is an image that sears across Rey's vision, projected outward to the ghost. Darkness, and then ugly, burning red that highlights the steely edge of a mask. Anger boils, rage is the steam, fury pours forth. Then, the face of a man, eyes hot like embers, a bloody gash across his face, cauterized by the blade of a lightsaber. Malice and hatred metallurgically combine, and Kylo Ren is the result. Images dance after him, of Han Solo pierced with that terrible red blade, of Finn lying motionless in the snow, of Leia's tear-streaked face and the warmth of her arms around Rey as they cry against each other.

The images fade like coals to gray ash, and she feels nothing but utter sadness from the ghost.

" _History does have an unfortunate tendency to repeat itself,_ " he says solemnly.

Another image flickers in her mind's eye. Red beams of a dual-bladed lightsaber, horrible red and yellow eyes set in a face of undulating patterns of black and red. One of the Sith, Rey knows, although this monster's name is nothing but a whisper in the back of her mind. Then, she sees a young boy, his eyes bright and his grin wide. _Promise, so much promise_ , she hears.

"Who was he?" she asks, although deep down, she knows the answer.

And the answer comes in three different voices, two different names. Master Luke's first, familiar and sagely, but so mournful. Kylo Ren's voice, only in his mind, respectful but searing. They say the same thing, in two different tones:

 _Darth Vader._

Then, quietly, careful as if stepping on stones crossing a river, Qui-Gon Jinn says, " _Anakin Skywalker._ "

Rey feels a complicated collection of emotions at the response. There's sadness that clenches at the base of her throat, up to the back of her head, edging her eyes in hot tears. There's anger that burns acid-warm in her belly. And then there's loss, independent of sorrow, an empty gaping wound in her chest. She wonders which of the three men that answered her felt each thing.

She doesn't say anything. There's no need to.

" _He was my apprentice,_ " Qui-Gon Jinn goes on. " _He was a wonder, an anomaly. The possibilities really were endless with him. His mother told me he had been conceived from the Force itself, and I never had a reason to doubt it._ "

There is another wordless exchange between them, filled with images of that same boy, tagged with a huge variance of feelings. Stubbornness, pride, excitement, loss. Then, the images fade but Rey feels something come after, concealed in the Force itself. Faith in another, faith in a future yet unseen, faith that it wasn't all for nothing.

" _I passed from that life believing in him,_ " Qui-Gon Jinn says with finality. The Forces moves though him and Rey like a great heaving sigh. It isn't disappointment, she knows. With it, however, she feels the spirit began to flicker away.

"He did redeem himself, didn't he?" she asks, perhaps a little too insistent. She doesn't want this spirit to leave yet.

" _I suppose,_ " is the reply, and although it isn't unsure, it does sound resigned. " _He was older by then, and the Dark side is powerful and cunning. There was so much of it in him._ "

"But it's possible," she says, more statement than question. "People can change, right?"

" _Those dedicated to the Light side have gone to the Dark before, Rey. They can change, but not always for the better,_ " he says calmly, sounding much like a teacher.

She sees Kylo Ren and Anakin Skywalker simultaneously in her mind. Both started so similarly, training under wise people, taught from a young age to do good, to take their strides in the Light, to avoid the encroaching Dark no matter how much power it promised. Both turned away from what they had been taught and chased the shadows.

" _You can also change,_ " Qui-Gon Jinn reminds her, but not unkindly. It comes across like a lesson, from Master to Padawan.

Before she can reply, she feels his spirit fade away, washed up in the Force's unending tide. It doesn't feel like that will be the last she hears of Qui-Gon Jinn, nor the last spirit that reaches out to her.

* * *

The second ghost comes during her meditation one morning, almost a full week after Qui-Gon Jinn spoke to her. She sits cross-legged on the rocky outcropping, palms flat on her knees, willing away the itch of bug bites and the persistent drips of sweat on her face. There are dozens of distractions, and her mind is nothing but bumpy terrain. When she tries to hone in on the Force, some traitorous part of her agonizes that her breakfast isn't settling well in her stomach and the rations are awfully bland. When she quiets those complaints, another pops up reminding her that her night was sleepless and she really should try to go back to sleep.

Every time she silences one part of her, another appears with some grievance. It feels like an extremely annoying game of chase, and Rey is dangerously close to giving up after she feels a straining ache in her spine from her position.

" _Focus, you must. But focus, you do not do,_ " a strange little voice says, and with it, a bright beam of light pours into her mind. Her eyes shoot open and standing before her, right at the edge of the rock, is a creature Rey has never seen before.

He looks like a hologram, blue and fuzzy, and Rey has to glance over her shoulder to make sure S4-M1 isn't projecting it. The droid is nowhere in sight, so Rey stares at him, mouth agape.

He's small in stature, hunched over like a little old man, one clawed hand resting on the head of a knobbly cane. He wears a dusty robe, not unlike one that Master Luke wears. His head is wide and squashed, enormous pointed ears sticking out on either side. He seems to sniff at her, his eyes half-lidded before he blinks slowly and nods. " _But a novice, you are,_ " he says, sounding very sure of himself in his odd creaky voice.

"Who are you?" she asks, mentally patting herself on the back for keeping her voice stable.

The creature surveys her before sighing and shaking his head. " _Your Master only told you so much,_ " he says.

The realization comes all at once, and as a shock. A creature from Dagobah, strange and old and infinitely wise. His spirit is a beacon of light in the Force, and she has to marvel at it. "Yoda," she breathes, wide-eyed and maybe a little light-headed.

" _Imagined this, you did not,_ " he replies as an affirmation, and the amusement rolls off of him easily. " _Not uncommon._ "

Rey has to ground herself, tether her mind so that she doesn't start talking uncontrollably, asking him one of the hundred questions she has about him, the Jedi, Luke, and everything else that comes as a rush. It's no small effort to dam the flow, and she ends up sitting on the rock, practically vibrating where she sits. Master Yoda, the one who taught her master and so many other Jed, stands before her as a ghost.

Somewhere below her, S4-M1 gives a shrill shriek of frustration. Ghosts apparently baffle them.

"I can't believe this!" Rey exclaims, bunching her hands to fists beside her. The grin on her face is wide, and she leans forward as if trying to get a better look at him. "You're Yoda! You're... I've heard _so_ much about you from Master Luke. I mean, no, I didn't know you would look like... I'm so sorry, I should have known and-"

He silences her by raising his other hand, a peculiar smile on his face. " _Understand, I do. And questions, you have many. But here, you train._ "

Her sorry excuse for meditation comes to mind, and her smile recedes into a frown. "Well, I'm trying," she mutters. At the thought, she adjusts her position, but all it manages to do is shift the ache from her mid-back to her tailbone. "I don't know if this is what Master Luke had in mind."

There's a peculiar glint in Yoda's eye and he slowly nods. " _Trained on Dagobah, he did. Hm. Came here to seek training, to seek the Force. But focus, he had little._ "

That thought alone baffles her. Master Luke seems so focused and meditative that it's hard to imagine him as anything but.

There isn't a doubt that Yoda reads her mind. He blinks slowly, nods again. " _Luke Skywalker, young he once was. Inexperienced. Doubtful, yes. Quick to learn, but much like his father in ways, he was._ "

Rey tries to divine meaning out of that and she arrives at so many different conclusions that it just leaves her feeling confused. She thinks about the images Qui-Gon Jinn gave her of the young Anakin Skywalker with all of his potential and his energy, as well as the darkness that took root and grew inside of him. The image he left her is incomplete, but Rey believes she knows how the rest of the story goes. It's not hard to imagine a similar darkness trying to make its way into Luke, but she finds it difficult to think of it overcoming him.

 _You can also change,_ she hears again, and the words chill her.

"Can you help me, then?" she asks. "Train me like you trained him?"

" _Not like him, no. Similar, you are, but different. The same, it will not be,_ " he replies, sounding just as old and tired as he looks. Like Qui-Gon Jinn before, his presence in the Force wavers. But then, he nods. " _Help you, I may._ "

If she could hug him, she would, but there are infinite difficulties involved with hugging a Force ghost, tangibility being the biggest one. Instead, she sits there, all of her excitement returning like a cascade of pure energy. The magnitude is not lost on her, having Luke Skywalker as one master and Yoda as the other, and the promise of Qui-Gon Jinn closeby. It's like nothing she could have imagined otherwise, and barely close to anything she could have come close to concocting by herself on Jakku. There's so much she doesn't know, but she feels that this is a fairly good start.

" _First, focus,"_ Yoda starts, and Rey snaps back to her original position, complete with her spine protesting. " _Feel the Force, you must. Reach out to it, yes._ "

It's one of the first real exercises she did, even before she met Master Luke. Her first step to it is always a rocky one, but it never fails. She imagines snow, trees sprawling black against an ash sky. A beam of raw starlight drawing deep into a great machine. The red of a lightsaber, the blue of another. Two clashing forces, Light and Dark, and the Force comes to her.

It works its way into her from her toes to somewhere above her head, touching on certain points along the way. Her tailbone, gut, navel, chest, throat, forehead, and then that certain non-physical part of her mind. Once she feels it touch on every part, she allows herself to be enveloped by it. It draws her in, light and airy, but warm and deep. It settles into her bones, her muscles, her skin, every fiber and cell.

In Yoda's presence, the distractions do not come. She focuses on his beacon, his specific point in the great ocean that surrounds all of them, that reaches out past the stars they can see and out to the ones they cannot. Although he isn't alive in one sense, he is a life, one of trillions or more. It feels as though she's looking out at the sea in the dark, and the stars above reflect onto the surface below, and it's endless. She's just one microscopic part of all of it, hardly even a speck of dust in its grand scheme, but that doesn't scare her.

" _Strong with you, it is,_ " Yoda's voice cuts in, but she doesn't see him. She doesn't see Dagobah either. She's hardly even aware of her own physical body. There's a glorious harmony rising around her, melodic and _so_ beautiful, and Rey just wants to listen to it forever. " _What do you see?_ "

She tries to speak, but the words fade. Language seems just so insignificant where she is, surrounded by so much _eternity._

But there is an interruption, a jagged red slice somewhere closer to her. She feels as if she's honing in on something, flying past the endless stars, the galaxies, the dust clouds, down and deeper. The life forms are fewer as she filters through them. Animal, plant, spirit, and then...

Her eyes snap open, her chest heaving and sweat dripping down her forehead and her neck. Dagobah comes back into view, as does Yoda's ghost. Below them, S4-M1 says _danger_ with far more certainty.

"Kylo Ren is here," Rey says.


	2. Chapter 2

The third ghost comes unexpectedly.

* * *

Rey doesn't hear what Yoda says after she comes to her realization. She's on her feet in a second, her hand already on her lightsaber. S4-M1 has settled on a nervous chirping below and Rey can hear them already start back toward the X-wing, either expecting to leave or attempting to hide. She fights through her momentary panic to try to figure out his proximity, but it feels like there's a wall in her way, too thick to pierce but just enough to understand that he's nearby.

She takes off in a sprint, slides down the outcropping, scraping her elbow in the process. It doesn't deter her, and she runs as fast as she can towards the camp. Rey can't tell if she's afraid of him or afraid of the connotation of his arrival. She settles on a mixture between the two, despite the fact she's defeated him once. The distinct crackle in the air tells her that he hasn't gotten over it yet.

S4-M1 isn't too far ahead, and Rey catches up to them easily. The astromech whirs and chirps so quickly that it's hard to understand, but Rey gets the gist. _Not good not good not good_ is the closest thing she can get to a proper translation. Rey's inclined to agree.

It only occurs to her once she's within sight of the camp that using the Force to cloak her presence would be an excellent idea. It also occurs to her that going straight back to her camp wasn't as much of a good idea. If Kylo Ren is here, then there's an enormous chance that escaping with the X-wing will end in a fiery explosion if the First Order is at his back. That leaves her to cloak herself and disappear into the swamps of Dagobah, possibly outnumbered and on a planet that does not care if she's a Jedi-in-training or not. If Kylo Ren doesn't kill her, the monsters in the swamp might. That's also not considering how long he'll pursue her. Even if she does make herself disappear, she certainly can't count on him giving up easily.

She ducks under the roots of the gnarltree to catch her breath, trying desperately to hone in on that last bit of the Force she had captured with her meditation. It's difficult, especially with S4-M1 panicking and trying to urge Rey to get into the X-wing, but somehow, she manages.

Rey envisions herself where she stands, and then imagines her entire being disappearing like sand in the wind, filtering away grain by grain from her toes to her head. When she opens her eyes, she's still standing there, but something's different. S4-M1 twists their head back and forth, chirping a query.

" _Invisible, you are not,_ " Yoda's voice says, echoing from everywhere at once. Rey blinks and looks for him, but he's just a tiny pinprick of light to her. She retreats further under the roots of the gnarltree and takes slow, steady breaths, trying to maintain what ever it is she's done. " _Concealed, you are. Those weak in the Force, see you not._ "

 _That's great,_ Rey thinks sardonically. _Kylo isn't weak in the Force._

" _But hide from him, you do._ "

She may not be invisible to him, but it will be harder for him to find her.

Rey debates on where she should go. She could hide in the X-wing's cockpit, but there's an enormous chance that he'll look there, just as with the shelter of the gnarltree's roots. It would be a death sentence in itself to run into the wilderness, as she figured before, but there could very well be a fate worse than death if she doesn't.

Her feet move on their own accord and she darts out from under the gnarltree and banks right, following a narrow path through the thick undergrowth and pools of stagnant water. Behind her, S4-M1 chirps shrilly and Rey resists every urge to hush the droid. Instead, she keeps running.

" _Use the Force to guide you,_ " she hears, and the voice isn't Yoda's _or_ Qui-Gon's. It's one she hasn't heard before. Another older man, wise and quiet. If Rey wasn't fleeing for her life, she would try to hone in on it more.

Her breath comes in heaves and the sweat is cold on her skin. In front of her is an endless foggy stretch of green and gray. Fear pulses hot, rattles her heart with waves of adrenaline. Rey feels the concealment of the Force slip away little by little.

The old man's voice returns, louder this time, as if he's right behind her. " _Rey, focus,_ " he says, and it's an order rather than a suggestion.

It isn't by her power alone that causes her to stop. There's something else with her, this third ghost if she suspects correctly. She can't see him, but she can hardly see anything at all with the fog as thick as it is. With every second, it gets more dense, and the world around her gets darker. She pants, turning every direction, trying to find what stopped her. There's nothing but dark fog and jungle, but she isn't alone.

" _Rey,_ " the old man says, and it feels as if he's standing directly in front of her. His presence his hard to grasp in her current state, but she feels it all the same. " _Do not let fear be your guide. You are strong, stronger than you think. Focus, and the Force will do as you ask._ "

She wants to hide. She wants to be safe, and she wants Kylo Ren to leave Dagobah and never come back. Something tells her that only two of those things are options.

 _Hide me,_ she says in her mind, and she feels the Force move against her, lapping like waves over her feet. Once more, she's sand in the wind, footprints on the beach at the mercy of the ocean, and little by little, she disappears.

" _Good._ " The old man hasn't left her, and she finds herself unexplainably grateful. " _What else?_ "

 _Keep me safe,_ she commands, and the Force changes its consistency. It is no longer wind or water. It's raw earth, pushing against her as a tremor in the soil, leading her feet without her eyes to guide her. She moves effortlessly through the fog, stepping over branches, twigs, puddles, and rocks without seeing a single one. The Force moves in her and around her, and guides her downward. Her knees protest the slope she cannot see, until she feels...

 _Cold?_

She opens her eyes, not realizing she had closed them at all, and finds herself in a hollow dug deep into the earth. Tree roots arch as a roof over her head, packed with dirt, and somewhere nearby, she can hear water rushing. As she asked, she feels safe, and the Force washes over her as if trying to assure her of the same.

Now, she waits.

In her concealment, she decides to assess the situation better. Rey doesn't have to worry about being lost, as she has full faith that the Force will lead her back when the time is right. If it doesn't, one of the three ghosts she's met will probably be willing to help, or at least offer her some cryptic advice by way of a map. However, as before, she firmly doubts Kylo Ren will leave her be if he doesn't find her within a day. She knows that he expects not to find her at her camp. It's been a long time since they last met, so she can't gauge how impulsive or temperamental he might be. He could very well have the potential to tear Dagobah apart if he so chooses. Honestly, she doesn't know how much he's put into finding her, but she assumes it's no small effort.

Her fists clench tight at her sides as she leans against the damp rocky wall of the cave, her breath evened out, but her chest straining.

" _I wouldn't lose hope, Rey._ " The old man's voice returns, and Rey at least has the luxury now of reaching out to him. When she focuses, his presence is not as bright as Yoda's, but it's _clear_. Where some other presences are raw starlight, his is like a prism. She can almost see individual facets of it, turning and refracting the light of the Force in ways that astound her. He's a powerful entity, and one entirely deserving of respect.

"Who are you?" she asks, casting a glance around the narrow space of the cave. It's dark, but in a way that makes her feel secure. This is not an unfriendly darkness. The Dark side has no power here.

There's a flicker before her, like the sprites of colorful flame above the swamps when evening comes, and it spreads to form a shape of a man. Like Yoda before, he's cast in blue light, and it illuminates a tiny second of the cave. He's a wizened old man, like she figured, but with an expression that's almost parental. His beard is just past his chin and is the same silver-white of his hair, pushed away from his face. His eyes are bright, hardly betraying the fount of wisdom within him. He wears the robes of an old Jedi, a dark cloak around his shoulders. The smile he gives her is knowing and peaceful.

" _I am Obi-Wan Kenobi,_ " he tells her, and Rey feels as if the entire galaxy just got completely tilted on its side. At least, that's how she personally feels. Her knees hit the compacted dirt beneath her and she _stares_.

Then, to take a page from some of the Resistance members she's met and befriended, Rey says, "Holy _shit._ "

What's more, Obi-Wan smiles at her, clears his throat like he's fighting a laugh. " _I've been watching your progress for some time, Rey. The Force is strong with you._ "

"You know me?" she asks, and she can't help but feel beyond excited at the prospect.

He nods, crossing his arms in front of him so the folds of his cloak hide his hands. " _I felt your strength in the Force not long ago, and watched as Luke took you under his wing. It's been so long since he took on a new apprentice. Far too long._ " The way he says it is wistful and sad. He knows what happened, so she doesn't have to say a word.

Slowly, Rey gets back to her feet, flushed but eager to see him eye to eye. This is Master Luke's teacher, Anakin Skywalker's before him. She still knows so little about the history of their galaxy, but she's learned enough to know that Obi-Wan has seen and done so many things, and the stories he could tell her could keep her occupied for literal days. She wants to hear them, after she heard Master Luke's tales about what he remembered. Stories of this great Jedi concealed in the desert as a hermit, under a different name-

 _Ben._

The name makes ice crawl frigid in her veins and she frowns, mimicking his gesture and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Then you know about..." She trails off, as if saying _his_ name will somehow summon him.

Again, he nods, and as solemn and sad as he seems, the kindness in his face doesn't fade. " _Ben Solo,_ " he says, and Rey spares a quick glance around just in case. There's nothing but the darkness and the blue glow of Obi-Wan's ghost. He does take not of her gesture with a sigh, and it's so similar to how Qui-Gon Jinn spoke of Anakin. " _I saw it for myself, although it was long after my life was extinguished. I wanted to see how Luke and Leia fared, and so I saw the child. I tried to tell Luke of the darkness growing in him, but Luke... Well, Luke did try to see the best in most, in his nephew especially._ "

Like imagining Master Luke as young and brash, it's hard for Rey to picture Kylo Ren as a child. The image of Ben Solo is unfocused, and she wonders if it's an effect of him being in her mind before, dashing out that part of his identity from himself and from her.

"What was he like?" she asks.

" _Oh, he had promise, of course. No grandson of Anakin would have anything less. He was enthusiastic and capable, and he absorbed things so quickly. His curiosity was strong, and I still wonder if that was, to a degree, part of his undoing._ "

She understands, as she remembers reaching into that part of his mind when he attempted to interrogate her. There, she saw the heat-melted mask of Darth Vader, like the charred remains of some grotesque monster. The emotions Kylo Ren associated with the mask were nothing short of reverent. It isn't hard to imagine it started with him asking questions about his grandfather, and wanting to know more.

 _Why did he go to the Dark side? How powerful was he? Were people afraid of him?_

Obi-Wan's expression suggests he hears what she hears, this lingering memory shared between them, Obi-Wan's from personal experience, Rey's just picked up in passing.

" _And now, we have the result,_ " the spirit says, glancing upward as if Kylo Ren stands above them.

"If he finds me-" Rey starts, but Obi-Wan raises a hand to silence her.

" _Even if he does, I cannot say for certain that he will get what he wants._ " He says it with such sureness that it almost sounds like a challenge. In turn, Rey wonders what a Force ghost could do to stop a person with so much of the Dark side roaring through him like the ferocity of a wildfire.

Her doubts speak for themselves, and she almost misses the barest grin on Obi-Wan's face. It's conspiratorial, if she had to pick a word.

" _You've witnessed for yourself the power of the Force, and its strength flows powerfully though you, Rey,"_ he says. " _There may be many things I am unable to do as I am, but I can at least assure you that there are also plenty of things I can do. The Force does not end with death._ "

This, she knows, at least inasmuch as three ghosts could prove to her. To their credit, they've done plenty in the short amount of time she's seen them. Qui-Gon Jinn projected things to her telepathically, even though he didn't appear himself. Yoda somehow allowed her to effortlessly hook onto the Force and eased her into the most perfect meditation she had ever been in. Obi-Wan Kenobi stopped her mid-run to teach her how to quell her fear, hide herself, and follow the Force to safety. These Jedi were certainly powerful in life, and it's no stretch to assume this power continues into death.

"What now?" she asks, not out of desperation, but instead as a legitimate question, asking for his counsel. "I mean, what can I do other than hide out in here? It's not like he's just going to give up."

" _No,_ " Obi-Wan concedes. " _He won't. But there is a reason that Luke chose Dagobah for your training. Others have been here before you, and each found that there are many unexpected things here._ "

For once, Rey would very much so enjoy if people would stop being cryptic to her. She sighs through her nose and resumes leaning up against the cave wall. "You're not expecting me to go out there and say hello, are you?"

Silence.

She turns towards the spirit, frowning. He looks completely passive, perhaps thoughtful.

" _Are_ you?" she repeats.

" _You did leave your droid alone,_ " he reminds her.

Obi-Wan Kenobi, Master Jedi and teacher to at least two of the most powerful Jedi she knows of, is literally telling her to go face Kylo Ren, right after he helped her hide from him.

As his specter fades, Rey thinks that living the rest of her life out in the cave suddenly seems far more appealing.

* * *

It's past nightfall by the time she finally musters the will to leave the cave. She hasn't felt anything distinct in the Force that would suggest Kylo Ren is hellbent on his mission, but he could also be concealing as well, or something similar. Rey hardly expected this to be easy.

The fog is still mercilessly thick when she leaves, but there's a sense of relief that nothing is on fire and Dagobah isn't any closer to being annihilated than when she woke up that morning. Still focusing on cloaking herself, she allows the Force to lead her back towards her camp. Foreboding and worry already begin to gnaw at her gut, but she refuses to allow fear to latch on. If she does have to meet him, she doesn't want him to see her afraid. Still, cautiousness and fear aren't completely connected, so she does unclip her lightsaber from her belt and clutches it tightly. She can be merciful, she knows, but she also will _not_ hesitate to either skewer him if he tries anything, or give him another scar to match the one she gave him on Starkiller.

Tentatively, as she walks, she reaches out through the atmosphere of the planet, feeling uncannily like a predator stalking through the brush. She senses lifeforms both big and small. There are familiar ones, like the little reptiles that scurry across the rocks, and the larger ones that meander, the great life signatures of the strange large beasts that live in the waters, and stranger still are the creatures that literally _are_ the gnarltrees. Many are unperturbed, and no lives fizzle out unexpectedly. There is a silent status quo set in the darkness, and nothing has tipped it yet.

Right when she thinks he's either completely concealed himself or, unrealistically, left Dagobah, she feels an anomaly. It's nothing like anything else on the planet. Neither swamp creature nor water beast, and certainly not one of the spirits that trail after her. He doesn't appear as a beam of light, or even a flurry of starlight. She has to focus, but she sees him as a shapeless _something_ , undulating, alternating red-white-red-white in pattern with no rhythm. It's so hard to concentrate, and his presence fades in and out. For a moment, she thinks he might be fighting for his life, but there's something that breaks through to her.

 _Rage_.

In an instant, she realizes that he has cloaked himself, but the cloak fades because he's _furious_. She couldn't have expected much else, she supposes, but it jars her all the same. It takes a good deal of courage to keep her from turning back to the safety of the cave.

She can't figure out how far away he is, so she walks slowly, sweeping out carefully to make sure he can't jump out from behind her. Rey doesn't push too far, in case he's closer than she thinks. She refuses to let her cloak down, and concentrates on the short amount of teaching Obi-Wan gave her. Honestly, she wished her training was more honed, more specific, rather than some blocky commands, but she does the best she can given the situation.

Rey continues to walk, slow step by slow step, the Force helping her retrace her path back to the camp. Nothing is out of the ordinary just yet, but the atmosphere grows more tense, and the fog refuses to abate.

Then, she hears S4-M1, chirping and whirring in something like a whine. It's not distress, Rey understands with relief. S4-M1 just sounds agitated at being left alone. In moments, she can make out their lights, and then the black silhouettes of the gnarltree shelter and the X-wing. The relief spreads once her camp is completely visible, and she wastes no time going to the droid, placing her hands on the cool chrome of their head.

"Did anyone come here?" she asks, keeping her voice down.

S4-M1 lets out one chirp that sounds like affirmation, twisting their head to get a better look at her, and then jerks to a stop. The next sound is one Rey certainly didn't want to hear. A low, droning beep, one that Rey knows very well from the droids on Jakku. _We've got trouble,_ S4-M1 says.

And to Rey's horror, she realizes the connotation of S4-M1 being able to see her. Her cloak was dropped, more than likely out of relief.

She feels him before anything else, the shapeless flashing _thing_ that he comes across as falls away little by little, like it's simply being seared off. She feels heat, unbearably hot like molten metal, like a merciless sun on the desert. His anger is all flames, and they immediately reach out to her like she's nothing more than dried kindling.

"You dropped your guard," is all he says, his voice altered by his mask. But the mask does absolutely nothing to conceal how he feels.

Rey turns slowly, with S4-M1 letting out a worried chatter of beeps behind her. Nothing has changed about him since she last saw him with the mask on. He's dressed like a shadow, and only the light of S4-M1 illuminates the ridges of his mask. She notices his lightsaber is in his hand, but not ignited. His stance certainly suggests that he's more than prepared to fight her.

She takes one step back, but knows that other than S4-M1, there's only a pond of water there. For all she wanted to escape, and as well as she did, it hasn't exactly worked out.

Neither of them speak for the longest, tensest moment. She can feel him already pushing at her mind, slowly at first, and then progressively harder. She merely pushes back, sending the message that they've already done this before, and nothing's changed on that front.

"Oh, things have changed," he says, his voice schooled so it comes across as casual. "You have, haven't you? Training to be a Jedi, right?" It doesn't escape her that he sounds so _mocking_. With a jolt, she wonders if he sounded like this before he massacred Luke's trainees.

"You don't seem so different," she replies, trying desperately to keep the tremor out of her words.

She's met with a short, sharp laugh, completely humorless. He takes one long step towards her, and she's unable to take a step back. Without a second thought, she ignites her lightsaber, bathing both of them in eerie blue light. It makes her think of the three Jedi ghosts she met, and she wonders if they're nearby, if they can help her at all.

"I don't seem so different," he echoes, and she can hear his sneer without having to see it. His lightsaber comes to life beside him, just as she remembers it. The blade crackles with unstable energy, and she thinks that there may very well come a day where it malfunctions completely. Very suitable to its owner, she muses.

He seems to catch that thought and takes another step, until he's looming too close. She angles herself into a defensive posture, immediately recalling all the forms she was coached through. Her mind must be wide open, more than she thought, because he laughs again. "Of course you've been training with him," he says. Then, angrily, "Let's see if you learned anything."

He's on her in less than a second, static red filling her vision and she's just barely able to block it. She takes a wide side-step to her left, giving her some space to back up, and he concedes. As soon as their positions change, he goes in for an all-out assault. Their blades clash over and over, the buzzing sound is all Rey hears, and then the crackle of his erratic blade. She continues to block every swipe and strike. He's completely on the offensive, so much so that his attacks aren't as precise as they could be, less focused on his form and more focused on some deeper more primal need to _win_. Rey doesn't need to wonder why he feels this way.

In contrast, she's almost purely defensive. Master Luke noted that it's worked out well for her, that she could wear her opponent out if need be, and then switch over to something more on the offense. While mastering a particular form hasn't been in her immediate future, she's favored the Soresu form, figuring she would be meeting more blasters in combat than lightsabers. It's the form that allows her to best get a feel for what she's fighting, and in this case, it lets her see Kylo Ren's intentions better, and his style of fighting.

Another benefit of the Soresu form is that it allows her to speak.

"What are you after?" she demands, blocking another wide-arcing strike aimed for her side. When he does that, she notices that he guards his, where he was hit back on Starkiller. He turns tightly toward it, keeping his hip angled away from her.

He strikes again, this time above her head, and then quickly tries to follow it up with an attempted clip to her shoulder. She blocks both fairly easily.

" _You_ ," he snarls, following it up with quick, successive strikes toward her torso. One comes close enough that she feels the heat of his blade close to her side. She parries it, twists his blade away and sends him careening back a few steps.

He readjusts his stance and she glares at him, both hands tight on the hilt. "Are you trying to kill me or are you trying to kidnap me again?"

Half of his answer is the wild, frenzied attacks he rains on her. She's forced to retreat several steps, her breath already coming in shorter and shorter with each block.

 _Form VII_ , her mind supplies in the voice of Master Luke. _Juyo._ _There's no emotion to it. Just butchering. Not many Jedi ever tried it._

That seems to be the case, as each strike is erratic, fast, and brutal. She blocks one strike at just the right angle to cause his lightsaber to score the earth near her feet, leaving a smoking black mark.

The other half of his answer is actually spoken, or more accurately, shouted. "I don't care what happens here!" he yells, and it's distorted into static by his mask. "If you die, if I get you alive, it doesn't matter!"

Apparently, he's more fond of the former option of her being killed. What ever happened to him between Starkiller and now has turned him into something far worse than she expected.

Worse still, he doesn't seem to be tiring, and she _is._ Her arms are beginning to ache with the strain of blocking each powerful strike. She knows she has to switch to the offensive soon, like she did on Starkiller, but then it's a matter of finding an opening in the deluge of his attacks.

 _"Make one,_ " she hears Obi-Wan say. " _You know you can. You've done it before._ "

The Force guided her before, and it gave her an opening when she needed it the most. Same enemy as before, and his tactics have changed, but her options are thin. All she needs is a little time, and a lot more faith than she thinks she has. She draws in a deep breath during a short pause between his attacks, and then charges forward, using the difference in their heights to duck underneath a wide swing of red and elbow him hard somewhere near his diaphragm. As soon as she makes contact, she leaps back and watches him stumble backwards. It buys her almost no time, but _almost_ is good enough.

The Force meets her halfway, runs though every particle of her until she feels like a livewire, hot and dangerous. In an instant, she's one with it, and it's more than adrenaline. It's more than any shot of chemicals or any meditation can give her. There's nothing in the galaxy like it, and for this small window of time, she can literally do _anything_. She feels like she's glowing with it, as bright and brilliant as the hottest star.

She charges at him again, yelling as she does so, and blocks him effortlessly. This time, instead of drawing back, she spins away from him, to his right and her left, and rather than strike him, she tackles him. He's sent reeling, quickly trying to regain his balance, but she's there before he can move again. Her knee rams into his side, her lightsaber now a breath away from his neck, and her other arm twisting to get his right hand into a lock. Before she knows what she's doing, her arm moves seemingly of its own accord and she hears a terrible _crack_. Kylo Ren makes a strangled noise behind his mask and she hears his lightsaber hit the ground.

Now it's just the two of them, her lightsaber poised to swiftly decapitate if need be. He's disarmed, and if she's heard right, his wrist is broken.

" _Yield!_ " she yells.

He doesn't make a sound, and part of it may very well be from the pain.

However, there was no way it was going to be that easy.

His left hand shoots straight for her neck before she can think on it, black leather digging in tight against her skin. The ridge between his thumb and index finger is right on her trachea, fully intent on crushing it. Rey, on the other hand, is not fully intent on dying. She beseeches the Force to give her one last push, and it does so, in the form of her foot making sound contact with his lower abdomen, right below his diaphragm. It's a harder kick than she thought, as he hits the ground with such force that she hears his helmet thump against the dirt.

Rey isn't one to rest on her laurels, so she quickly moves over, one boot square on his chest, the other angled so her heel hovers just above his broken wrist for sake of leverage. The tip of her lightsaber is just under his chin, poised above his throat.

"Yield or you're dead!" she shouts.

He's soundless again, but he stays that way. No noise, no movement. She doesn't budge in case he's trying to bait her, yet nothing happens. She presses down on his chest with her boot, and it doesn't elicit a reaction, so she reaches out with her mind, slipping into his _too_ easily.

"Oh, _shit_ ," she says, and Poe would be proud of her.

She's knocked Kylo Ren unconscious, and now she has no idea what to do with him.


End file.
